The Weather Service is good, actually

As our new world moves forward at the speed of DOGE kids on energy drinks, the tornado of information has us deep in fog of war mode. Out of the fog rise certain truths, like: science is our friend, and so is the National Weather Service.

Weather Watch

U.S. winter storm train. With one winter storm still over the Northeast, the next prepares to come down the tracks. Areas of snow, freezing rain and some flooding downpours will exit the East Coast today, leaving the highest impacts in the high country like West Virginia where an ice storm warning is up. A stripe of 6 to 12 inches of snow is predicted from the Dakotas to Great Lakes region from the next one, starting late Thursday.

Iceland rocked. Nearly all of Iceland was under red alert Thursday as dangerous conditions from a powerful winter storm continue. Widespread wind gusts of 90 mph or higher were recorded across the island, with a maximum gust close to 150 mph in the mountains of eastern Iceland. The storm is full of moisture, thanks to a connection to the tropics. It’s the latest feed pumping relatively toasty air to the polar regions.

Hot take Thursday

Our new/old president claims to be a big fan of “common sense,” yet his minions have begun dismantling the so-called administrative state by going after some of the cheapest and most productive parts of government.

The home of the Weather Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found its turn on the DOGE hit list earlier this week. Partly pretend and partly godlike, the entity is up to relatively unknown things at NOAA HQ, as elsewhere.

According to Project 2025, the hugely unpopular plan from a think tank that should be stripped of its nonprofit status, NOAA and the NWS are bad and should be diminished as much as possible. More broadly, Project 2025 is the same extreme plan Trump distanced himself from during the campaign before instituting in office.

It’s all very bizarre at the surface.

For about $4 per person per year, the Weather Service provides numerous mission critical services for less than a visit to Starbucks. As shown above, the return on investment is also significant.

Compare that to $2,600 per person (rounded down) for the defense budget. Among its return on investments, it allowed us to entangle ourselves in many messes and come away with little in return or worse.

As stated by Project 2025, a primary problem with NOAA and the Weather Service is the institutions hold that they believe in climate change in the same manner they believe in gravity.

Can’t have that.

But no matter how you view climate change — our military has known it is real for a long time — the weather itself increasingly falls under the umbrella of critical threats. As the frequency of destructive storms and population increases converge, the risks of crippling super-disasters, including the likelihood of multiple at once, also rise.

Should you be looking to increase deaths and costs from storms that we have become better at predicting, needlessly attacking NOAA and NWS is a great way to do it.

About 

Weekday morning newsletter by a journalist/forecaster that connects weather and climate change dots while occasionally stirring the pot.

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